Water powered cleaning and scrubbing appliances are well known in the prior art. Representative, but by no means exhaustive of the patented prior art on such cleaning appliances are the following U.S. Pat. Nos. Cummins, 1,694,733; Haines, 2,599,911; Brucker et al., 3,039,123; Potenza, 3,088,149; Frandsen, 3,431,573; Vivion, 3,760,447; and Guadio, 3,813,721. Typically, in the prior art a scrubbing brush or abrading device is driven in a rotary fashion by a water-driven rotor. For example, in the Potenza U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,149, a disc-shaped abrading element is mounted at the end of a shaft which is rotatably journaled in the body of the device and extends into a fluid flow passage housed within the device. A rotor element is fixedly attached to the end of the shaft within the passage and a controlled flow of water through the passage strikes the radial blades of the rotor element to impart a rotary motion to the shaft thereby rotating the disc-shaped abrading element. Notwithstanding the numerous prior art proposals for water-driven appliances, none of them has provided a completely satisfactory basis for a small, hand-held, household-type appliance.
Accordingly, a principle objective of the Applicant's co-pending application Ser. No. 827,625, filed Aug. 25, 1977, is to provide a novel and improved water-powered appliance or the like, which is capable of highly economical construction, is small and lightweight, and which at the same time operates at an acceptable level of power output and at acceptable efficiencies. In accordance with one of the specific aspects of the invention of said co-pending application, a fluid-driven motion appliance is provided, which utilizes in a novel and unique manner a nutating motor element, which is contained within the appliance housing and is driven by the flow of fluid, typically water from a household source. While nutating motors are, in themselves, well known in the art, the invention of said co-pending application provides unique advantages by utilizing a nutating action motor with a utilization device mounted directly upon the output shaft of the nutating wobble plate. In the operation of the appliance, the utilization device is provided with a generally orbital motion. The utilization device does not, however, rotate about it axis. This provides a highly desirable and effective form of motion. Heretofore, the orbital movement of the output shaft has been used to obtain a rotary output from a shaft journaled on a fixed axis.
As one of its basic objectives, the present invention seeks to provide a novel fluid-driven wet sander or the like which is a modification of the general type of nutating action appliance proposed in said co-pending application and which is useful to particular advantage as a wet sander. Generally, the wet sander appliance of the invention comprises a fluid-driven nutating action motor provided with a housing including a water inlet and outlet, and containing a wobble plate mounted upon a sphere. The sphere is mounted for universal movement relative to the housing, within certain angular limits, and an output device in the form of a shaft or rod extends from the shere, along the axis extending through the center of the wobble plate, at right angles thereto. The wobble plate is slotted at one side and straddles a separating plate which divides the housing in which the wobble plate is contained. The motor housing is supported by a plate which advantageously includes a handle or gripping element.
Pursuant to an important feature of the present invention, the utilization device (typically a sander, brush or scrubbing device) is supported in a spaced relation to the motor housing by a transversely yieldable support means. In a preferred form of the invention, the support means comprises a rubber boot-like structure interconnecting the plate and utilization device. The boot is sufficiently rigid in compression to prevent collapsing of the utilization device against the motor mount plate under normal operating pressures, but at the same time, is sufficiently resilient in the transverse direction to permit movement of the utilization device in its plane. Of course, other support means may be used, for example rubber or coil spring stand offs. The output shaft extends from the motor housing within the confines of the boot and is directly linked to the utilization device by a universal joint means.
In the operation of the device, water flows into the housing on one side of the separating plate, travels in a circular path around the housing, and leaves through the outlet on the opposite side of the separating plate. The wobble plate is held in a tilted position by means of a rotary member engaging the shaft of the wobble plate. Thus, when water is admitted into the housing and travels around it to reach the discharge port, it pushes against the tilted wobble plate which assumes progressively changing tilt angles as a result of continued water flow. The resulting nutating motion of the wobble plate causes the output shaft to move in an orbital manner which is transferred to the utilization device by the universal joint means. To advantage, the transversely yieldable support means will flex to allow the utilization device to be moved through an orbital motion.
Provision is made to discharge all or a portion of the driving water onto the surface being sanded or scrubbed to enhance the operation of the utilization device. This is especially advantageous when the utilization device is a sander, a principle application of the appliance of the present invention, whereby a highly effective wet sanding operation may be performed.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment and to the accompanying drawings.